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Ready the phasers, Pvt. Wade

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Step by step, we're closer to Star Trek. TRW Inc., a military contractor, just finished their first official demonstration of a new laser weapon. The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) was used to heat an artillery shell until it exploded. From the Reuters coverage:

The Army and TRW Inc, which developed the weapon, said in a joint statement that the laser tracked, locked onto and fired a burst of concentrated light energy photons at the speeding shell over the White Sands test range in New Mexico.

"Seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed," the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command said.

This weapon is a joint effort between the U.S. Army and the Israeli Defense Ministry. Similar weapons were used two years ago to shoot down slower moving missiles, but this is the first automatic 'detect-target-destroy' demonstration on a projectile traveling over the speed of sound.